If only we had decent rail coverage

Post #322,310 by drook 3/3/10 7:06:15 PM Reply	If only we had decent rail coverage Or even good bus connections. And I'm not talking about out here in the suburbs. There's a total of 2 train stops in downtown Cleveland, and one of them is at a Park-and-Ride lot. Yes, that's right. You can drive all the way downtown to park in a lot, from which you can then take a train the last quarter-mile into the city. And let's not talk about the fact that most of the outlying stations are located in neighborhoods where you wouldn't want to leave your car unattended all day, nor come back to late at night. Trains are for poor people, donchya know. Why would middle-class people care about access to a train? -- Drew
Post #322,323 by static 3/3/10 9:19:04 PM Reply	I hear ya. A lot of car-oriented urbanisation has largely taught its residents that you use the train when there is little or no other choice. That varies from parking in the city being too expensive (i.e. commuters) from simply not having a car (i.e. the less well-off). Travel outside peak hour and the variety of travellers can be disturbing. I also saw it when I got long-distance trains in the US: many patrons were those further down the economic scale than the average. I think cities like Cleveland have an additional problem. It's local government reluctance to invest in public transport. It's even more obvious in Detroit (look at a map!). Or ask Greg about Grand Rapids: plenty of rail, yet no commuter stations. WTF? Sydney has a subtly different problem: there once were people who championed rail et al, and had some significant successes. We one had one of the largest tram networks in the world, for instance. But for too long, successive governments look short term with no vision or recognition of long-term need. We had a visionary in John Bradfield http://en.wikipedia....adfield_(engineer) - we need another one and there's just no-one in Macquarie Street like that. Wade. P.S. I couldn't make the weecode to do a URL work. :-( Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers? A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
Post #322,342 by drook 3/4/10 10:04:28 AM Reply	They even passed a law in Cleveland once By referendum, the people said they wanted a subway built from Tower City (downtown) to University Hospital (several miles south-east). But the county engineer preferred freeways, so he tied it up in red tape until after the next election and the whole thing just died. There are pages and pages of plans for subways in Cleveland, but the most amazing part is that there used to be one. It was supposed to be the first phase. But it ran on the lower deck of a bridge. And the upper deck was getting a lot of traffic. So the county engineer (yes, the same one) had the tracks ripped out and paved the lower deck to relieve congestion. http://www.urbanohio....php?topic=2726.0 Cars kept crashing into the support piers, so the lower deck was sealed. Yes, they killed the subway to relieve congestion on one bridge, and it didn't even work. -- Drew

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